Elderly couple found dead in Manchester home

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MANCHESTER , MO (KPLR) – Manchester police suspect carbon monoxide poisoning took the lives of a husband and wife found dead in their living room chairs Saturday afternoon. The couple had lived in the 900 block of La Bonne Parkway for some 40 years.

“I just knew something wasn’t right,” said next door neighbor and friend Joe Muccigrosso. The couple failed to put out their trash Wednesday night and that might have been the first sign of trouble.
Police Chief Tim Walsh said their deaths were accidental and probably caused by carbon monoxide from a car left running inside their closed garage. The husband was 83 and his wife was 76.

“There were no indications of violence, no indications of forced entry and the gas appliances were operating correctly,” Walsh said. The St. Louis County Medical examiner will determine the exact cause of death.

Laclede Gas workers were on the scene along with firefighters from West County EMS and Fire. Utility workers dug up the gas pipe to the home to be sure there were no gas line leaks.

Muccigrosso and his wife frequently picked up mail and newspapers for their neighbors when they were out of town. By Saturday, when the newspapers were piling up on the driveway and no one was answering the phone next door, Muccigrosso contacted the couple’s daughter in Nashville, TN. She called Manchester police asking that they check on her parents. The first officer to the scene looked through a window and saw what appeared to be a dead man in a chair.